Goddess of fire and volcanoes in Hawaiian mythology, the ghost of Madame Pele is said to haunt the islands. As an old woman hitchhiking along the road to a beautiful woman warning about a volcanic eruption, this goddess never left the islands.
Mai ka Lua a‘u i hele mai nei, mai Kīlauea,
Ke kui ‘ia maila e nā wāhine o ka Lua ē
‘O Puna lehua ‘ula i ka papa
I ‘ula i ka papa ka lehua o Puna
From the crater I’ve come, from Kīlauea,
The women of the caldera have strung leis
The foundation of Puna is crimson, covered in lehua blossoms.
Sacred is the fountain covered with the lehua blossoms of Puna
– Chants for pele are performed at Halemaʻumaʻu, where it is said Pele currently resides.
Can a goddess become a ghost? Can her presence haunt the place she once resided over? Madame Pele is said to be the goddess of volcanoes and fires in Hawaiian religion, but also the creator of the Hawaiian Islands. She is often referred to as Madame Pele or Tūtū Pele to show respect and known as “She who shapes the sacred land.” Even when the old religion was officially abolished in 1819, people still kept believing in her and her ways found ways to stay in the modern world that was changing Hawaiians ancient ways drastically.
The Kilauea volcano is believed to be inhabited by a family of fire gods, her siblings being connected with other elements, and there are many stories about her, especially about her being passionate, power hungry and jealous with a fiery temper.
Legend has it that Madame Pele herself journeyed on her canoe from the island of Tahiti to Hawaiʻi. Some say she came from the mystical floating land Kuaihelani or perhaps even a land said to be “close to the clouds.” The chronology of Pele’s journey corresponds with the geological age of the Hawaiian islands.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from the USA
When on her journey, it was said she tried to create fires on different islands, but her sister, Nāmaka, was chasing her, wanting to put an end to her. In the end, the two sisters fought each other and Madame Pele was killed. With this happening, her body was destroyed but her spirit lives in Halemaʻumaʻu on Kilauea. They say, “Her body is the lava and steam that comes from the volcano”.
This is only one of the many stories tying her to the Kilauea volcano, and many other stories tell about her family, her travels and how she is connected to the nature she passed on her journey. But we will here focus about the legends of her haunting the Hawaiian islands that the islanders still takes very seriously
Madame Pele’s Warning about Volcanic Eruptions
The locals also sometimes believe that Madame Pele warns the locals about the oncoming eruptions and appears and manifests either before or during the eruptions from the volcanoes.
She can also change form, appearing as a white dog or with the dog accompanying her. She also appears as an old woman with white hair, or as a beautiful young woman. She is said to be wearing a red muumuu, long white dress or even dark and ashy clothing.
Read Also: Ghosts Haunting Hawaii’s Volcano House and the Volcano Goddess
The dog is sometimes a manifestation of her, sometimes her pet, sitting on the slopes of Mauna Loa where no real dog could survive.
This is perhaps one of the newer tales about her ghost or spirit lingering in the world, but at least since the 1930s, there have been many tales about how people claim to have encountered her, on the road, before an eruption or close to the volcanoes.
Haunting of Madame Pele
There are many ghost stories where Madame Pele appears or that people think that Tūtū Pele must be behind.
One urban legend claims that she is walking along the roads close to Kīlauea. If passersby are trying to stop her or talk to her, she is said to vanish, like in the same way the ghosts of the Vanishing Hitchhiker legend does.
Over a ten year period, one named Katherine Luomala, collected 48 different variations of the legend where Tūtū Pele showed up as the character from the vanishing hitchhiker legend. She sometimes accepts the offers of getting a lift before vanishing, or even just asks for a cigarette before going away. In some stories she gets revenge on those refusing to give her a ride.
Read More: Check out the urban legend of the Vanishing Hitchhiker
If you have seen her, you are obligated to spread the word and warn others about the oncoming eruption she is warning about, or face the consequences when you suffer misfortune in the next eruption.
According to people living on the Big Island, they have the saying: “Never refuse an old lady – she might be Madame Pele.”
The Ghost of Madame Pele’s Man
The legend of Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanic fire, relates how she fell in love with a man called Lohiʻau, but found that he had died. She found his ghost as a thin presence in a cave, and with great difficulty used her magical powers to restore him to life or her sister Hiʻiaka, goddess of hula, did it.
He was destroyed again as Tūtū Pele killed Lohiʻau herself in a fit of rage, but his ghost was again found, this time in the form of a bird flitting over the waters, and was once more restored to life.
Pork over Pali Highway
There is also the case of bringing pork over the Pali Highway, which is Route 61 on Oahu. If you do bring the pork though, there are stories about the cars stalling when you drive over it and wont start again before you throw the pork out.
What is the reasoning for the pork rules on this road? According to some it comes from the feud Madame Pele had with Kamapuaa, the pig-man god. He was her husband but cheated on her. When she discovered it, they divided the island into two territories they would not be allowed to cross.
Read More: The Haunted Nuʻuanu Pali Drive and Highway and Morgan’s Corner
Another variation of this story is over Saddle Road on the Big Island, where drivers crossing between east and west should not be carrying pork with them. This particular stretch of Saddle Road is also a location where many claim to have seen Madame Pele.
The Painting of Tūtū Pele
About 1929, D. Howard Hitchcock made an oil painting of Madame Pele that his son donated to the park In 1966, where it was displayed in the visitor center from 1966 to 2005. The painting was criticized for portraying the Hawaiian goddess as one with European features.
In 2003, the Volcano Art Center announced a competition for a “more modern and culturally authentic rendering” of the goddess.” An anonymous judging panel of Native Hawaiian elders selected a painting by Arthur Johnsen of Puna, Hawaii from 140 entries. In Johnsen’s painting, the goddess has distinctly Polynesian features, holding a digging stick (ʻōʻō) in her left hand and the egg that gave birth to her younger sister Hiʻiaka in her right hand. In 2005, the Hitchcock was replaced with Johnsen’s painting.
Madame Pele’s Curse of the National Parks
In addition to people claiming the dog is a warning of death, there is also the story about Madame Pele’s curse in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. It is said that if you take a lava rock or even sand away from the Hawaiian islands, something Madame Pele sees as her own children, you will have bad luck until it is returned
There are plenty of sand and stones that are taken from the land every year, but there is also a thing when people bring it back because they think they are cursed. This is also the case with Cursed Artifacts from the Grand Canyon and Bodie Ghost Town Frozen in Time with strong legends of people thinking they are cursed if they remove something from the place.
People blame when their pets die, losing their jobs or houses burn down on Madame Pele’s wrath. But what is really behind the curse?
The National Park Service as well as hotels around the islands claim that every year they receive the things taken by post, by tourists seeking Madame Pele’s forgiveness.
Many believe the curse, but there are also many saying that the curse was invented in the mid-20th century by park rangers tired of the tourists taking stuff all the time or perhaps even by the bus drivers, tired about the sandy and dirty buses, as there really is no old tradition for this legend from the Hawaiian folklore. There are at least written records of it since 1946.
In fact, when westerners first arrived they learned from the local Hawaiian that they shouldn’t pick the flowers from the Ohia tree, eating the Ohelo berries or touch the rocks, as it could reflect badly on the Hawaiians and she mostly retaliated in a volcano eruption, not giving people bad luck.
Madame Pele’s Haunting Today
Even though you don’t believe the curse, believe the law that forbids people from taking Hawaiian nature from the islands.
Unlike many old deities from ancient religions, the belief in Madame Pele and people practicing their faith to her continues even to this day.
Pele practitioners leave flower leis, food wrapped in “ti” leaves and other offerings on the edge of volcanoes as a sign of respect. Often they leave berries, and sometimes in newer times, gin has started to become a thing to offer. Rangers in the parks seldom interfere with the visits, which often include special hula dances and chanting.
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References:
Pele and Lava Rocks | Snopes.com
The Curse of Pele: A Tourist Legend – Multo (Ghost)
Pele & Hiʻiaka (U.S. National Park Service)
